Review: “Designing 007” Exhibit

I recently visited a traveling museum exhibit of James Bond design and it was black tie heaven.

The exhibit is called “Designing 007: Fifty Years of James Bond Style” and was produced in collaboration with the film franchise’s production company which provided unprecedented access to their archives. One room is devoted solely to the evening clothes featured in various Bond films and it was quite a thrill to inspect the dinner suits up close and in person. While some were replicas (including, sadly, Sean Connery’s Dr. No tuxedo), others were the real thing: Daniel Craig’s Tom Ford creation from Quantum of Solace, George Lazenby’s highland black tie from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Pierce Brosnan’s dinner jacket from GoldenEye.

Unfortunately photos cannot be taken inside the exhibit. However, pictures of some of the featured tuxedos are available in this Esquire article and this site shows many of the other items on display. The exhibit premiered at London’s Barbicon Centre in September and is currently in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox until January 20.

The entrance to the exhibit is cleverly designed as the iconic gun barrel used in the opening credits of most Bond films. (I couldn’t resist striking the classic Bond pose.)

1 Comment

TB2February 27, 2013 at 5:56 pm

I saw the exhibition in London last summer. The replica costumes should be praised – they were painstaking created to mimic the originals as much as is possible, using careful research. (The originals in the sixties were destroyed after the film was completed.)